Word Study - Revisited

The video is an Overview of Word Study.  This is the introduction to a webcast put out by the Literacy/Numeracy Secretariat.

For more information on Word Study, follow the link below and scroll down to the "Word Study" video and choose your topic of interest.
http://www.curriculum.org/content/archives-of-past-webcasts

The Guide to Effective Instruction in Reading K-3 is another good resource.  Chapter 9 is a good starting point.

9. Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, and Word Study

. . . . . . . . . . . 9.1

The Purpose of Instruction in Phonemic Awareness, Phonics,

and Word Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3

An Overview of the Three Areas of Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3

Planning Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, and Word Study

Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.5

Phonemic Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.7

Phonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.11

Word Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.16

Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.22

Sample Lessons

Sample Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, and Word Study

Lesson 1: Kindergarten (Emergent Readers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.23

Sample Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, and Word Study

Lesson 2: Grade 3 (Fluent Readers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.27

Appendices

Appendix 9-1: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, and Word Study

Activities and Approaches, Kindergarten to Grade 3 . . . . . . . . . . 9.30

Appendix 9-2: Phonemic Awareness Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.33

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.34

Word Study - Part II

Pictures are worth a thousand words.  Scroll down to "Spelling & Word Study" to view a number of great videos (check out 'Attack that Word').  Navigate the rest of the site and bookmark for future use.

The Balanced Literacy Diet - YouTube

Word Study Instruction in the K-2 Classroom

With our recent conversations around high-frequency words & Word Study within the Literacy Block, I Came across this website and I thought it was worth sharing.  This site has much, much more great information...take some time and surf.

Word Study Instruction in the K-2 Classroom | Reading Topics A-Z | Reading Rockets

Teaching Strategies

Determining which Instructional Strategy to use at which particular time is how we spend the majority of our planning time.  In doing this we are attempting to engage each one of our students by providing numerous examples of instructional strategies from which the student (eventually) can choose the most appropriate to meet their goal.

"Instructional Strategies become Teaching Strategies when the student independently chooses the appropriate strategy to meet the goal."

Instructional Strategies can be found in numerous resources (i.e. Guides to Effective Instruction, CASI Guide, Internet, etc...).  Our key is to effectively choose the most appropriate for each activity and thus vary our approach.

Our Goal:

• Choose 2-3 strategies that you haven't used before & implement
• Continue to focus on the value of Student Portfolio use
• Continue/begin to utilize Student Self-Assessment strategy

PD Day Follow-up

"One of the biggest challenges for teachers is trying to teach mathematics in ways they didn't experience as students."

                                                                         Literacy & Numeracy Secretariat

Learning Goal:

We are learning to better emphasize and focus on the "Big Ideas" during our mathematical instruction to help our students gain a deeper understanding of mathematics.

 

Success Criteria:

 

 A Numeracy Block structured to allow for exploration (eg. 3-Part Lesson).

 A classroom environment organized for independent student-centred activity (eg. Manipulatives, technology, other resources & 'tools').  

 Open-ended & Parallel tasks utilized for differentiation.

 Math vocabulary used regularly within the classroom.

    

 A risk-taking environment promoted.

 Patience & Confidence exhibited by students with their assignments and assessments.

"The goal of instruction is to support each student as a mathematician, not fix the math."

                                                                         J. Mason, 1996

Progress Report Help - Comment Framework

I tried to simplify the numerous pages around the Comment Framework.  This by no means is a substitute but only a starting point.  

Why do we write the Progress Report:

1. When parents read the comment can they see their child?

2.    When students read the comment can they see themselves?

Comment Framework:  

(the colours match the individual lines from the examples in the attachment I sent out last week)

• focus on what students have learned  

(Write key learning with qualifiers and descriptors)

This statement can be generated ëby levelí (i.e. your level 1, 2, 3 & 4)

• describe significant strengths

(Share specific examples that demonstrate the learning)

How/When did the student demonstrate this learning?

• Example: using manipulatives, orally, written assignment, etc…
• Very difficult for all students to demonstrate the exact same way.  There might be groups demonstrating in a similar manner.  Even all Level 2 Students might not demonstrate their learning in the same manner.

• identify next steps for improvement

(Communicate next steps to student and parents)

• Once again, it is very difficult for all students to need the exact same next step.  There might be groups requiring a similar next step.

Reminders:

• Follow one-page sheet (donít forget Religion/Family Life Comment)
• Follow Comment Framework (i.e. see examples)
• In Numeracy, you comment on where you are (i.e. strand specific)
• During your literacy block you are working in all areas (i.e. oral, reading, writing & media literacy).  Comment where you are.  

Please remember that these are Progress Reports not Report Cards.  The most important part is the Learning Skills section.  This area is foundational for student achievement.

Divisional Meeting (October) - Minutes

Divisional Meeting – October 2012 (Minutes)

Marker Student (Tracking Sheet & Folder)

§  Use of varied strategies is important ex. Graphic organizers, tiering, chunking tasks are strategies

§  Preferential seating, use of computer not strategies

§  Some strategies in Effective Guides and in CASI manual

§  Should be a student who is a level 2ish who with some intervention can move

§  Submit name and rationale to Brian – use data and examples to support choice

§  If you need data Brian will print the information from the data warehouse

§  Use your professional judgment and get data to support

§  Pieces in the file or portfolio should be unedited and authentic work from the student

§  Nothing that goes home can be assessed

§  These marker student files will come to the next divisional mtg

Learning Goals/Success Criteria/Descriptive Feedback

§  Reference to the Damian Cooper clip (see earlier post) everyone watched last year

§  Once we put a mark on it the learning stops

§  Evidence is nice to see in the halls

§  Build the rubric from the learning goal and the success criteria you establish

§  Students need this before they embark on the task so they ‘know the rules of the game’

§  This evidence of student learning also helps when you are writing report cards

Formative Assessment (“once we put a ‘mark’ on something, the learning stops”)

Portfolio

§  Let’s make sure we have collected all the files for the students in our class – ask around if you are missing some

§  Authentic pieces – perhaps something from language and math each term

§  Writing pieces should not be edited yet

§  No we don’t remove anything from the files

                        Student Self-Assessment

§  Begin to think about students going through this process as it is very important

§  We would like to move in the direction of student led conferencing

§  Students need to play a role in their learning - accountability

IEP

§  Thanks to the teams that met to develop those

§  Difficult sometimes when we don’t have the feedback from last year

§  This year will meet with teachers before the end of the year so we have a starting point for the IEP done in June

§  IEP’s should have writing on them – indicate if the goal was attempted but not met or the opposite

§  Share with the EA’s as they support goals on the IEP’s as well

§  Written on copy of the IEP is what goes home with the report card

Support (Guided Instruction)

§  Our support staff is assigned to the school

§  LSST’s and EA’s are in the classrooms helping all who need it

§  Work in small groups – more children will benefit

§  When someone else walks into a room they should not be able to tell ‘who is who’ in the room in terms of Teacher, EA or LSST

§  We work collaboratively as teams

§  LSST’s are delivery PALs remedial and guided instruction

§  Great if the materials are ready in the room and the person coming in already knows what their role is

§  Should not have to ask the teacher each day what they are working on

§  Have to tweak schedules to go with the data

Math Focus

§  Ministry focus this year across Ontario

§  Package provided has the linear look at the expectations

§  Look at the grades in your division or the grade before and after yours- find the ‘AHA’ or something interesting to share at the PD day in Nov. as that will be a numeracy focus

§  Let us know if there is something you think we should explore that would be practical for all

Questions/Comments

·       Can we compile a list of possible strategies to explore with marker students or all students?  Answer=Absolutely.  We can work toward this during our Divisional Meetings this year

·       How many pieces should go into the portfolio?  Answer=All year long we should be putting everything into the Portfolios.  At certain points during the year you will ‘cull’ them and keeping only certain ‘authentic’ pieces.  We started a School Wide list last June….lets build on it.

·       IEP statement – does it have to go onto the Progress report?  Answer=No

·       Do we comment on all 4 areas of language for the progress report?  Answer=Maybe.  You comment on where you are (i.e. If you have enough for a comment, then comment.  If you don’t have enough, then you don’t comment.)  Please remember that these are only a Progress Report and not a Report Card.

Being True to Yourself (and your students)

Fall is a beautiful time of year.  The temperature is changing, the colours are beautiful and school is back is session.  With all of this comes the inevitable reporting periods.  It is a very difficult task to make 'judgements' on students, in particular, when they are very young (i.e. grade 1).  However, being true to the students (and thus ourselves) will help them (and us) improve.  

Our Assessment & Evaluation begins and ends with our Growing Success document.  This document needs to be at our finger-tips with 'dog-eared' pages, highlights, 'notes to self' and many more examples of constant usage.  The process of Assessment & Evaluation has the following components:

1. Planning (i.e. Long-term, Short-term & daily) beginning with the Curriculum
2. Diagnostic Assessment (i.e. PM Benchmark & CASI)
3. Learning Goals & Success Criteria
4. Performance Tasks (Rich Tasks)
5. Formative Assessment
6. Student Self-Assessment
7. Summative Assessment
8. Reporting Period (i.e. Provincial Report Card/Progress Report)

Our Assessment (both Diagnostic & Formative) 'drive our instruction' (i.e. the numerous practice sessions leading up to the 'big game').  The Summative Assessment (i.e. the 'big game') is where the students put of their newly acquired skills on display and we award them with a 'grade'.  We then evaluate all of their summative assessments to determine an overall 'grade' for a particular reporting period.  Being truthful during this process is extremely important to both you, the student and your colleagues.  This 'truth' is based on standards.  These standards are established and move from grade to grade and thus being 'truthful' is key to student achievement.

Below is an excerpt from Learning Targets: Helping Students Aim for Understanding in Today's Lesson (Brookhart & Moss 2012).  They have created a theory of action that states, "The most effective teaching and the most meaningful student learning happen when teachers design the right learning target for today's lesson and use it along with their students to aim for and assess understanding."

Report card grades that accurately summarize achievement over a set of learning goals must start with a set of ingredients—that is, individual summative assessments—that each accurately summarizes achievement of intended learning goals.

To make an omelet, you need eggs. To make a good omelet, you need to put the eggs and other ingredients together and cook them properly. Report card grades that accurately summarize achievement of learning goals must combine the component grades in ways that maintain the intended meaning about student achievement. 

If you summarize the information well, you will see that there is a direct link from the learning goals to the report card grades. The learning goals were the basis for learning in classroom lessons, and the performances of understanding (i.e. Rich Tasks) yielded formative assessment information for improvement. 

After weighting the individual "ingredient" grades so that they contribute more or less heavily to the final grade, as you intended, summarize them into one grade by taking the median of the individual grades. In most circumstances, the median will be a better representation of typical performance on a standard than the more familiar mean (sometimes called the "average").

Therefore, after you have your class list of median grades, do a "judgment review" and revise the grade in the rare cases when the median is not, in your judgment, the best representation of student achievement. There are two circumstances when the median may not be the best representation.

The first is when a student's pattern of achievement has been one of steady improvement. In that case, privilege recent evidence. Suppose, for example, that a student began a report period at Basic level on a standard, but improved so that he reliably performed at the Proficient level by the end of the report period. The median grade may be Basic, but this student's current status on that standard is Proficient. Use your judgment, based on the pattern in the achievement evidence, to revise the grade and assign Proficient.

The second circumstance is when the grade is right on the borderline between two categories. Then the question becomes, "In my judgment, does the higher or lower grade best represent this student's achievement in the subject or on the standard?" Use additional achievement evidence to answer that question. We don't mean that you should put more numbers into your calculation of the median. Rather, consider how the student did in the performances of understanding you observed. Which grade or proficiency level did the student's work, overall, reflect? Use your judgment, based on this additional evidence, to assign the appropriate grade.

But don't stop there! Remember, your task is not to do a set of calculations on your class grades. Your task is to select, from the choices available in the grading scale on which achievement is reported, the symbol that best represents student achievement in that subject or on that standard. The median grade will be the best representation for most—but not all—students.

7 Things to Remember About Feedback

Source: The collective wisdom of authors in the September 2012 issue of Educational Leadership: "Feedback for Learning." (Volume 70, Issue 1)

1. Feedback is not advice, praise, or evaluation.  Feedback is information about how we are doing in our efforts to reach a goal.  Grant Wiggins, p. 10

2. If students know the classroom is a safe place to make mistakes, they are more likely to use feedback for learning.  Dylan Wiliam, p. 30

3. The feedback students give teachers can be more powerful than the feedback teachers give students.  Cris Tovani, p. 48

4. When we give a grade as part of our feedback, students routinely read only as far as the grade.  Peter Johnston, p. 64

5. Effective Feedback occurs during the learning, while there is still time to act on it.  Jan Chappuis, p.36

6. Most of the feedback that students receive about their classroom work is from other students - and much of that feedback is wrong.  John Hattie, p. 18

7. Students need to know their learning goal/target - the specific skill they're supposed to learn - or else "feedback" is just someone telling them what to do.  Susan Brookhart, p. 24

In latest issue of Educational Leadership this summary really 'framed' feedback for me.  Using the above 'teasers', choose one article to start with and focus on the strategies.  I believe the key to having effective feedback is stated very well by Brookhart.  The students need to know their Learning Goal/Target in order to 'hear' and use the feedback.

Learning Goals/Targets - Teacher created in student friendly language which they can communicate.  Use the Specific Expectations from the Curriculum to generate 'targets' or 'goals' for students to aim for during the Learning Cycle.

Success Criteria - Co-created by teacher & student.  These are steps students take to meet their learning goals.

Formative Assessment - Ongoing throughout the learning cycle.  Students are given feedback and opportunity to practice/perfect the Goal/Target.  No 'marks/grades' attached.  Student Self-Assessment is a major factor during this stage.

Summative Assessment - Completed at the end of the Learning Cycle.  An opportunity for Students to demonstrate their learning and be assigned a 'mark/grade'.  When a Reporting Period (i.e. Report Card) occurs, the teacher accumulates the numerous examples of the students Summative & Formative Assessments from the students portfolio of learning (i.e. examples) and makes a 'Judgement' to produce a grade.

In the coming weeks we will dive deeper into each of these areas but this gives a concise overview of the Learning Cycle.

Assessment - An Overview

Assessment for, as & of Learning form 'what we do' in terms of assessing students throughout the year.

During the first couple of weeks of school there would be a lot of Diagnostic Assessment (Assessment for learning) happening with your students.  Especially at the beginning of the school year (i.e. establishing routines, getting to know individual needs, etc....).  In terms of a sport, this can be thought of as the 'try-out'.

Soon you will be establishing Learning Goals and co-creating Success Criteria as you begin your first Unit of Study (Start with the Curriculum and the Guides to Effective Instruction in Mathematics and Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction and move outward).  

At this point Formative Assessment plays an extremely large role (Assessment as Learning).  From our sport analogy, this is the practices you organize as the coach.   Descriptive Feedback plays a large role during this portion of assessment.

This will be a major focus for us as a school this upcoming year.  Our goal is to learn from each other along this journey.  More to come very soon.

Finally, we 'end' with a Summative Assessment piece (Assessment of Learning).  Relative to the other areas, this is a very small portion of the total assessment cycle.  This can be considered one of the 'games' that we are 'competing' in during the season (school year).  

Interested in hearing other perspectives that will add to the conversation.

Classroom Libraries (con't)

Pictures are worth a thousand words....just a few pics to generate ideas....

Classroom Libraries

Classroom Libraries are levelled books that are used for the Independent Reading portion of your Literacy Block.  The Level on the book corresponds to the students reading level as assessed using a standardized assessment tool (i.e. PM Benchmark).  

We will create a unified school wide system for our Classroom Libraries over the next couple of weeks.    This system will have several advantages:

• we will know exactly how many of each level we have for all reading levels
• allow sharing of libraries
• provides students with 'Just Right' books
• variety for students
• 'common language' that teachers and students understand
• allows us to 'fill the gaps' without duplication

Overall, an effective Independent Reading program is an integral portion of a Balanced Literacy Block.  It allows your Guided Reading portion to take place as the students are engaged in an appropriate reading level.  Also, it gives 'meaning' to your Shared Reading portion as the students are engaged to find more strategies to improve their reading.

Our first order of business will be to have a 'Book Leveling' Party.  Each teacher will bring out their Independent Reading books to the Learning P.I.T. after school one night and using the computers and other resources we will collectively 'Level' books and place them into bins.   

Of course this is a very brief overview.  I'm interested in hearing other ideas...

Welcome

Curriculum Corner has been created as a place for educators to share, grow and learn from each other.

stay tuned for upcoming posts....